Manhandle
by Numisma
Summary: [Miroku x Inuyasha x Kagome] Miroku looked at him expectantly. “You don’t trust me, do you?” “Not one bit,” the hanyou grumbled. “Neither do I,” the monk admitted tersely. ONESHOT. Gift!fic for Lucinda the Maid


Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha

Gift!fic for Lucinda the Maid. Takes place in between anime episodes 17 and 18.

-

He slipped into the water with a silent hiss, then gingerly made his way toward the opposite embankment, cautiously keeping a certain distance from the hot spring's other occupant. Long strands of hair floated heavily behind him as he moved through the water; below the surface they fanned out like glossed, spun silver as he halted and turned.

Casting a suspicious glance toward the other man, he didn't even bother to soften the glare marring his features. He stared at the monk, who hadn't yet noticed he was being watched, then with the raise of an eyebrow and a growl half let loose he said, "You even wear that thing when bathing." It was more a comment than a question, he knew, but he didn't particularly care.

The monk turned at the address. "Well, yes." His words were solemn and almost as heated as the water that lapped at their abdomens, cooling only as he followed the hanyou's gaze to where it fell upon the gloved hand in question. He squeezed it into a fist, staring at it blankly.

"You ever take it off?" The words came out before the hanyou could stop himself.

The monk's eyes met his in an abrupt flicker and he gave a small, wry smile. "Forgive me for the poeticism, but I suppose one way of putting it is, 'the beads must remain, or the howling winds will reign'." The hanyou narrowed his eyes and gave a snort of disinterest. "The cloth, however," he continued, holding up the covered hand, "is more for decoration than necessity." His smile vanished. He looked as if he were about to speak again but the hanyou interrupted him. He'd had enough of small talk.

"Look, the only reason I'm even bathing with you in the first place is to keep an eye on you," he muttered, arms crossed over his chest as he moved closer. "Got that?"

The monk feigned innocence even as the distance between them shrank. "Oh? And whatever for?"

The hanyou stopped a foot in front of him. "To make sure," he said boredly, "that a stupid pervert like you doesn't go trying to peep on Kagome on the other side."

A ghost of a smile returned to the monk. He crossed the gloved hand over his chest, bringing the other hand up to close around a segment of the rosary twisted almost artfully around his forearm. He absentmindedly fingered the beads as he made his reply. "Is that so? I wasn't aware you saw her as anything beyond your shard detector."

Inuyasha twitched minutely. Bringing a fist up, he smashed it into his open palm. Miroku needed to know what the boundaries were, even if he needed it pummeled into him. "What she is to me has nothing to do with it," he said with a snort, "and there's no way I'm gonna let-"

"Are you certain you have no desire to see her naked?" Miroku asked in a tone suggestively out of the blue, watching the hanyou's startled reaction despite the fact that he'd somewhat brought it up in the first place. The monk gazed idly to the side and rubbed his chin. "I imagine she has a wonderful body with great curves and small, pert-"

The muscles in the hanyou's shoulders were bunching with tension, and he clenched his fists, shaking imperceptibly with irritation. "I don't fuckin' care-"

"I find that hard to believe," Miroku interjected. "Your- oh, I'm sorry," he apologised, taking one step back each time the angry hanyou looming before him took a step closer. "I mean, _our_ beautiful female companion most certainly strikes me as one who would be gifted with the body of a goddess. After all, when she came flying toward me through the air and knocked me off my feet, that's exactly what she looked like-" The monk stopped in mid-sentence, the playful smile dying on his face. His back had hit a large boulder. The hanyou had him cornered.

"Let's get this straight, monk," he growled, crossing his arms. "If you so much as touch her-"

Miroku's eyes darkened slightly. "Oh, you mean like this?"

Inuyasha was about to answer when a horrified look crossed his face, which quickly contorted into one of intense anger. "Mi-miroku?" he managed to croak out.

The monk in question smirked faintly. "Yes?"

Furious, Inuyasha flexed the claws of one hand in the air. "Get your hand off my ass, right _now_!" He brought his arm back and made a mad swipe for his target. Just because the man had joined their group a week ago didn't mean he had to be a permanent addition. Kagome probably wouldn't sit him too many times so long as he didn't kill the guy.

His arm came down at a wonderful angle, but at that moment the monk's right hand shot up and connected with his forearm. The fiercely tight grip effectively stopped it from completely descending and wreaking havoc upon him with those sharp claws. Further angered, Inuyasha tried to shake him loose, but took a sharp intake of breath when he found he couldn't counter the block. He couldn't even focus. At the point of contact where Miroku's fingers curled around and dug in, what felt like a magical numbness had already started, quickly spreading throughout his entire forearm until his limbs were nearly devoid of feeling.

Stunned, he stared at his immobile hand. The fingers were still flexed and the claws still readied, frozen for a powerful strike. No amount of exertion could get his hands, fingers, or arms to respond. _What the hell is this?_ he growled to himself. _I, I can't move my arm! How can he- but he's- _No matter how he strained his muscles, he found himself unable to so much as even twitch the claw of one finger.

"What the hell did you do to me, you stupid monk?" he grunted, struggling though it was useless.

The monk's deep gaze penetrated him to the core. "Wouldn't you like to know? I may only be a few years Kagome's senior but I am a veteran practitioner of the spiritual arts."

It took Miroku so little effort to force him around that within an instant Inuyasha's back was to the boulder, that mysterious, magical death grip constantly upon his forearm and holding him nearly frozen. He never had a chance to struggle.

Inuyasha grimaced; he was at the monk's mercy, and he hated being at _anyone's_ mercy. Unfortunately, though, the current circumstances lent him little opportunity. By this point whatever was being used against him made him feel as if half the feeling in his entire body had been numbed away. He'd tried rotating his shoulders, kicking with his legs, countless other movements, but it was no use. He was stuck.

Miroku had him pinned flat against the rock. "I normally don't resort to such measures, but it was for my own safety. I'd rather not get claws raked in my face."

Inuyasha sneered. Amazingly enough, his face muscles still worked. "Yeah, well, I've never been groped by a guy. How the fuck did you think I was gonna react, huh?"

The monk smiled. His gloved hand tightened even more, and Inuyasha could have sworn he'd seen the rosary beads glow faintly for a moment. It was difficult to tell with all the steam from the hot spring rising up. The heat was starting to get to him. "Ah, but it's so fun to get you all worked up over _our_ female companion."

Inuyasha's eyebrow twitched.

Miroku looked at him expectantly, but the hanyou made no further attempt to speak. "You don't trust me, even though we've all been traveling for a week, do you?"

"Not one bit," the hanyou grumbled.

"Neither do I," the monk admitted tersely. For the first time since they'd met, he actually looked somewhat irritated. "As I said when we first became on friendly terms, I work better alone. But I stay in the group not only because I believe it would be beneficial to us all and to our mission of collecting the jewel shards and destroying Naraku, but because I can tell that Kagome is a good judge of character. And Kagome seems to trusts you."

Inuyasha remained silent for a moment, unwilling to admit having used a similar line of reasoning in how he felt about their group's newest addition. The kitsune hadn't made much of an impact on their journey aside from gaining them several shards from the Thunder Brothers, but no matter how much he hated to admit it, having a well practiced wielder of spiritual power backing them up was bound to prove of much aid later on down the road. There was only so much a hanyou like himself could exert in terms of power against powerful youkai. His speed, swordsmanship and claw attacks were his only real advantages.

He still didn't trust the monk very much. But while he still thought Kagome was _stupid_ for recklessly jumping into the path of his Kazaana, he did know why she'd done it. She'd had the intuition that the man wanted no harm done to innocent bystanders. A man like that wasn't a bad man.

But there was one main reservation he held against the man. How he was with women. The lech.

Inuyasha had to calm his temper and disgust at that last thought; it had made him recall Kagome's joking comment about loving men of that sort. He had to regain enough composure to speak his thoughts aloud this time. "Yeah, she trusts me. She trusts me to make sure you don't spy on her while she's bathing. Cuz even if she trusts you, that doesn't make you any less a pervert."

Miroku feigned hurt. "I only-"

"I know what you did. You don't need to repeat it to me, idiot!"

"But how much does she trust you, I wonder?" the monk posited.

Inuyasha was furious. "What!"

Miroku released another pulse of spiritual binding power, reaffirming the numbness of Inuyasha's muscles. It was also beginning to affect his senses. His sense of smell had diminished to less than that of a human by now.

Miroku's voice was starting to sound a bit thin, almost metallic.

And it was hot.

"We are men whose hands literally bear the curses of those who came before us. But how we use these deadly things shall show which of us is to be trusted."

"Wh-wha?" He shivered even in the heat of the hot spring. "Release me already!"

"You may wish to become a full youkai, Inuyasha, in order to escape your curse, but if you do aim to use the shards for such a purpose…" Miroku trailed off, then released both the hanyou's forearm and the spiritual binding on him.

Gasping at the sensory overload, Inuyasha shut his eyes and immediately sank several inches into the water. The movement sent a series of tiny waves along the surface of the hot spring. His senses were still mostly drowned out, but the feeling in his body was already beginning to return. The water level settled just above the bottom of his chin.

Miroku's words continued to echo through his alert ears.

"If you do, Inuyasha, I will be the first to stop you. I have chosen to use my curse for good purposes. You should also find a way to use yours as such. It is a heavy burden to carry someone else's curse. You bear the curse of your parents' union, and should you make union with another, unchanged you will inevitably spread it down your line. If you don't, you'll simply die and it will be the end of your line.

"I have one way to free my bloodline of my curse. How will you free yourself of yours?"

A cloud of silverish white surrounded him in the water. A silent, trembling heap, Inuyasha did not answer the monk. He knew he couldn't at this point in time.

A strange ringing in his ears was beginning to sound. However, he knew it wouldn't last for long. His hearing would return to normal in another thirty seconds or so. And after that, he'd have maybe another minute or two before he could fully move.

Inuyasha fully recovered from the temporary spiritual binding to find that Miroku was waiting on the bank of the hot spring for him. He had dressed himself already, but he hadn't left to sneak off to spy on Kagome. He'd waited for him to regain his senses, perhaps in more ways than one. And somehow, he wasn't sure why, but Inuyasha was certain that it meant something.

Inuyasha put his clothes back on, and the two left quickly, wordlessly, almost awkwardly. They'd been in their side of the hot spring for a while, and there was a chance she was already out. And as they walked together, he thought about what had happened.

He couldn't describe in words the effect this… ordeal between them had had on him.

It was a strange altercation between two men under pressure. That was the best way to put it. It had to be.

As they reached the camp, Inuyasha raised one set of claws for closer inspection, casting quick, nervous glances between his own hand and the purple-enshrouded, rosary-bound hand of the monk. Even though he didn't want to admit it, he suddenly felt a little less alone.

He wondered if it would stay that way.


End file.
